Charles W. Chesnutt to W. E. B. Du Bois, 15 October 1926
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CHAS W. CHESNUTT
Replying to your letter of September 25th inclosing manuscripts which I return herewith, and to your follow-up letter of October 13th, would say that I have read the manuscripts submitted several times with mingled feelings.2 Almost without exception they are well enough written from the standpoint of construction and dramatic interest, but the theme and the story! Mr. Fischer's sketches and Mr. Van Vechten's3 powerful and vivid delineation of certain tawdry if not sordid aspects of Harlem Negro life are Sunday school stuff compared with the scenes and subjects which these budding realists have selected. If they are writing about the things they know, as a writer ought to, they must have a wide knowledge of the more unsavory aspects of life among colored people.
I should grade the stories about as follows, although this is of course a mere guess:
1. "The Swamp Moccasin." A clean, simple, dramatic and convincing story, written in a snappy style. 2. "The Death Game." A rather ambitious and well constructed story. The descriptions of places are good, the characters vividly drawn and the story well built up to a dramatic climax. 3. "How Farmville Came to Jesus." Characters well drawn, story well constructed. 4. "The Flaming Flame." 5. "The Wall Between." 6. "The New Dawn." 7. "The House of Glass."
Of course I realize that these are amateur efforts and as such they are promising. If or when the writers learn how to employ effectively the literary expedients of humor and pathos and apply their tragedy to subjects that appeal, some of them will make good writers. I can see the reason for your concern about themes for colored writers. It is not only a matter of editors and readers, but, if it can be considered separately, a matter of literary quality and human appeal.
It would be interesting to know from how many manuscripts
2.
these seven were selected, but I presume that will be announced in The Crisis. Hoping that I have not delayed the decision, and with best wishes for you and The Crisis, I remain
Correspondent: William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (1868–1963) was a sociologist, historian, and world-renowned civil rights activist. After completing coursework at the University of Berlin and Harvard University, Du Bois became the first African American to earn a doctorate from Harvard in 1895. He was a professor of history, sociology, and economics at Atlanta University (1897–1910 and again in the 1930s). He was a prominent leader of the Niagara Movement and helped found the NAACP in 1909. As the editor of the NAACP's journal, The Crisis, from 1910 to 1931, Du Bois published four of Chesnutt's short stories as well as two of his essays. See "The Doll" (April 1912), "Mr. Taylor's Funeral" (April/May 1915), "The Marked Tree" (Dec 1924/Jan 1925), and "Concerning Father" (May 1930); and "Women's Rights" (1915) and "The Negro in Art" (November 1926).
1. By the summer of 1925, Chesnutt's business, Chesnutt & Moore, had moved its offices to 1646 Union Trust Building from its previous address, 1106 Williamson Building. [back]
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3. Carl Van Vechten (1880–1964) was a photographer, novelist, and music and drama critic, an influential figure in New York literary circles in the 1920s, and a patron of the Harlem Renaisssance. He was also a collector of books on Black Americana. [back]
